 These people were in constant communication with their still numerous kinsmen in the north at Kaikoura (which had an even larger population than Kaiapoi) and also with the large body of the Ngāi Tahu who had gone further south to settle in Otakou.With these more distant districts there developed a system of interchange of gifts of food, which was really a form of trading.From the far south came preserved muttonbirds and dried fish, the canoes or carriers returning from Kaiapoi with loads of Kumara; while to Kaikoura went part of the store of southern muttonbirds in exchange for potted pigeons.